Herbal Spotlight~ What is Echinacea?
December 28, 2008 by Linette Gerlach
Filed under Herbs
Along with spotlighting new plants over the next couple weeks here at Mother Earth’s Garden, I plan to go over some old favorites, and explain why you should consider growing them in your garden.
One of my favorite herbs to grow is Echinacea. One of the most common cultivars is Echinacea Purpurea (pictured at the top right here). The common name is Purple Coneflower.
Purple Coneflowers are great for naturalizing and are grown in meadows, side ditches and gardens through out the United States.
Echinacea has been used as a healing herb for many centuries. Native Indians used Echinacea in their medicines long before the Europeans landed here.
The entire Echinacea plant can be used in herbal remedies, either dried, or pressed while fresh to create an extract. One of the best known uses for Echinacea is to help prevent, or shorten the length of the common cold.
Echinacea and goldenseal are often combined to help boost the immune system and fight off colds and flu. The Echinacea part of the duo helps to strengthen the immune cells against bacteria and viruses.
I’m a firm believer that the Echinacea goldenseal combination help ward off illness. I use it every time I feel a cold coming on and rarely get sick.
I am a firm believer in echinacea and I’ve been using it since I was a teenager. Lately I have been incorporating it into my daily diet by drinking teas with echinacea and cooking with spice rubs that have echinacea as an ingredient. I prefer this to taking capsules.